Converters of that type are not suitable for gaming for the reasons described on that page: www.ultimarc.com/ipacusb.html
To use an older board via USB instead of PS/2 you would need a suitable passive adaptor or our cable. We can send the cable by air mail instead of DHL which lowers the cost considerably.
Note that when using the older I-PAC with the pass-through connector, in USB mode, the pass-through is not used. The board can be reconfigured, if necessary, without using this connector.
Andy, I think the kids main problem here, is he is unsure of WHICH adapter he needs to buy.
The 2 listed on the Ultimarc website are
USB Cable for pre-2015 I-PAC
&
PS/2 Cable for pre-2015 boards
The confusion here, is which adapter actually converts the old PS/2 iPac to a USB?
Can we assume that the PS/2 Cable for pre-2015 boards is meant for plugging into PS/2 type computers and the USB Cable will plug into the output of the old iPac's PS/2 port and the other end into his USB?
Could you please clarify for not only him, but myself and anybody else with this issue.
My buddy still has my old original iPac from like almost 15 years ago, and as far as I know, it still runs like a champ. Although the hardware it is being used on currently, is like an old MSI K8N Neo4 or something if I remember correctly. Maybe it was something else.. all I remember is that it has an old AMD XP chip, and the motherboard is an MSI utilizing the PS/2 port.
That old MAME cabinet is probably about due for a hardware/software upgrade after all these years, and I can see where one would want to keep utilizing that old iPac if it's still good .vs buying a new one.